Like the fellow code:
(= 1 1 t) ; error
(= 1 2 t) ; nil
t is a symbol, (= 1 1 t) signal a error, that is what we expect.
But in the second form there is no error, because "=" get the
result before to eval the third argument "t".
So "=" not to eval all arguments, that is a "sepecial form" activation.